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FLORAL FRAGRANCE, POLLINATION, AND SEED GERMINATION OF TWO NATIVE, EPIPHYTIC ORCHIDS IN SOUTH FLORIDA By HALEIGH AMANDA RAY A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2018 © 2018 Haleigh A. Ray To my family and friends who have been tremendously encouraging ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am extremely grateful for all of my friends and family members who have given endless amounts of love, support, and encouragement as I have progressed through my Ph.D. completion. Without them, this degree would not have been possible. I would like to thank my committee chair and advisor, Dr. Jennifer L. Gillett-Kaufman, for all of the support and advice she has provided during my time here. Thank you for your patience and motivation throughout my dissertation research, it has helped prepare me for my all of my future work in addition to everything that I have completed here at the University of Florida. Additional thanks to my committee members, Dr. Michael Kane, Dr. Charles Stuhl, Dr. Jaret Daniels, and Dr. Jaime Ellis for their feedback on my research. Dr. Kane was always available to help with my seed germination, from the use of his laboratory to troubleshooting research obstacles. Dr. Stuhl provided tremendous assistance in processing of floral fragrance samples and working with me to fully describe the resulting data. I am also very appreciative to the members of the Gillett-Kaufman laboratory, including Dr. Morgan Byron, Eleanor Phillips, Dr. Lawrence Reeves, Omotola Dosunmu, Dr. Eutychus Kariuki, and Ryan Fessenden for review and editing of my dissertation. Additionally, I would like to thank Dr. Lawrence Zettler and Dr. Marjorie Hoy for all of the guidance and preparation they have given me on the path to my dissertation. Although unnamed here the other faculty and staff at the UF Entomology and Nematology Department have always been supportive of my work and made me feel at home in Gainesville. This research could not have been carried out without the assistance of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife staff at the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge (FPNWR), especially Mark Danaher and Ben Nottingham for coordinating use of refuge facilities and monitoring orchid 4 populations. I am very appreciative of the field work assistance at FPNWR that I received from Larry Richardson, Andrew Stice, and Fauve Wilson, all of whom spent exhausting hours in the refuge with me collecting data. Additionally, the hours in the laboratory from Brandon Corder assisting in orchid seed counting are much appreciated. I would also like to thank James Colee of the University of Florida IFAS Statistics Department for statistical consulting. Finally, I would like to thank the University of Florida Graduate School for the Graduate School Fellowship that I was awarded, allowing me to conduct my dissertation research over the last three and a half years. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...............................................................................................................4 LIST OF TABLES ...........................................................................................................................8 LIST OF FIGURES .........................................................................................................................9 ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................................11 CHAPTER 1 LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................................................................................13 Pollination ...............................................................................................................................13 Florida Ecosystems .................................................................................................................14 Insect and Vertebrate Pollinators ............................................................................................16 Hymenoptera ...................................................................................................................16 Coleoptera ........................................................................................................................19 Diptera .............................................................................................................................20 Lepidoptera ......................................................................................................................23 Birds ................................................................................................................................25 Bats ..................................................................................................................................27 Orchids and Orchid Pollination ..............................................................................................28 2 FLORAL FRAGRANCE ANALYSIS OF Prosthechea cochleata (ORCHIDACEAE), AN ENDANGERED NATIVE, EPIPHYTIC ORCHID, IN FLORIDA ...............................39 Introduction .............................................................................................................................39 Materials and Methods ...........................................................................................................40 Fragrance Collection .......................................................................................................40 Identification of Floral Odor ...........................................................................................42 Results.....................................................................................................................................43 Discussion ...............................................................................................................................43 3 POLLINATION OF Encyclia tampensis, THE COMMERCIALLY EXPLOITED BUTTERFLY ORCHID, BY VARIOUS INSECT TAXA IN SOUTH FLORIDA ..............50 Introduction .............................................................................................................................50 Materials and Methods ...........................................................................................................51 Pollinator Exclusion ........................................................................................................51 Pollinator Collection ........................................................................................................52 Statistical Methods ..........................................................................................................53 Results.....................................................................................................................................53 Pollinator Exclusion ........................................................................................................53 Pollinator Collection ........................................................................................................54 6 Discussion ...............................................................................................................................56 4 EFFECT OF POLLINATION AND LOCATION ON SEED GERMINATION OF TWO NATIVE ORCHIDS .....................................................................................................67 Introduction .............................................................................................................................67 Materials and Methods ...........................................................................................................68 Prosthechea cochleata .....................................................................................................68 Encyclia tampensis ..........................................................................................................70 Statistical Methods ..........................................................................................................70 Results.....................................................................................................................................70 Prosthechea cochleata Seed Capsules ............................................................................70 Encyclia tampensis Seed Capsules ..................................................................................71 Discussion ...............................................................................................................................72 5 DETERMINING POTENTIAL POLLINATORS OF Prosthechea cochleata (ORCHIDACEAE) AND ATTRACTION OF HONEY BEES TO A P. cochleata SYNTHETIC FLORAL FRAGRANCE BLEND ..................................................................80 Introduction .............................................................................................................................80 Methods ..................................................................................................................................81 Pollinator Sampling .........................................................................................................81 Floral Odor ......................................................................................................................82 Insect Trapping ................................................................................................................82